Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery vs Orthopedic Surgery

[deleted662474]

I am so confused

Please don't be confused. I'm here to help!

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[sazerac]

I shadowed my ortho surgeon last week and he made it sound like it was so easy to match into ortho. I gave him the famous Bert stare
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How old was the surgeon? It may have been easy back in his day.

 

[deleted662474]

How old was the surgeon? It may have been easy back in his day.

34 years old. He's a very young guy. He told me that when he applied for ortho residencies, he didn't even know that ortho was competitive. It could be that it wasn't as competitive as it is now, but I'm not sure. He also said he didn't do any research in undergrad; he only did research in 3rd year of med school because he thought he had to do it. He said it didn't help with matching into ortho because the research was about the heart.

 

[fancymylotus]

34 years old. He's a very young guy. He told me that when he applied for ortho residencies, he didn't even know that ortho was competitive. It could be that it wasn't as competitive as it is now, but I'm not sure. He also said he didn't do any research in undergrad; he only did research in 3rd year of med school because he thought he had to do it. He said it didn't help with matching into ortho because the research was about the heart.

What? Doesn't make sense

 

[deleted662474]

What? Doesn't make sense

What doesn't make sense?

 

[midwestdentalfest]

I don't think it is as difficult to go OMFS as Ortho. There are a handful of elite programs that are tough to break into...but there are ton of mediocre to bad ones that one can get into with determination and patience. Having said that...

Go medicine. OMFS is way different than the other dental specialties...way different...and if you don't end up matching OMFS you will be doing something completely non surgical... I almost fell into this trap, i destroyed undergrad but simply loathed dental school and couldn't bring myself to excel...i almost got stuck doing something i couldn't stand, but then fate created the nbme...at least in medicine you still have multiple surgery options even if ortho doesn't work out

Sublimazing,

I was reading through SDN and I saw a post you made earlier this year advising someone to go to medicine because OMFS is so different and if you didn't match then you'd be doing something nonsurgical in dentistry. I'm a third year dental student and I cannot stress how much I absolutely hate general dentistry. If I hear more BS about retentive undercuts and Class 2 preps, I'll flip out. I was considering applying to med school before I started seeing what OMFS is like in the hospital and I really like the surgical nature of the field. But everyone at my school starts saying you need to be in the top 10 and I am nowhere near that. I'll most likely be in the top 30% of my class by the time I graduate. Would this block me from doing a 6 year program? What are those lower tiered programs you had mentioned?

Thanks so much,
Midwestdentalfest

I don't think it is as difficult to go OMFS as Ortho. There are a handful of elite programs that are tough to break into...but there are ton of mediocre to bad ones that one can get into with determination and patience. Having said that...

Go medicine. OMFS is way different than the other dental specialties...way different...and if you don't end up matching OMFS you will be doing something completely non surgical... I almost fell into this trap, i destroyed undergrad but simply loathed dental school and couldn't bring myself to excel...i almost got stuck doing something i couldn't stand, but then fate created the nbme...at least in medicine you still have multiple surgery options even if ortho doesn't work out

 

[The Buff OP]

Isn't it though?

Everyone seems to want to do something uber competitive. Sure, it's good to set your sights high but come on people should be realistic.

I guess step 1 scores serve that function.

There's a Ronnie Coleman quote I really like:

"Errybody wanna to be a body builder but nobody wanna lift no heavy ass weights."